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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25950310">Deep Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies/pseuds/bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies'>bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Percico Angst and Fluff Month 2020 (weeks 2 &amp; 3) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Does mermaid abuse count as animal abuse or just abuse?, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Healing, Human Percy, IDK whether to rate it T or M..., M/M, Mermaid Nico, Mute Nico di Angelo, Nico almost accidentally drowns his new BF when he learns how to kiss, Nico was rescued from an illegal circus, POV Third Person, Past Abuse, Past Violence, Sign Language, Slow Burn, The other characters only make small appearances... it is mostly Percy and Nico, but it WILL be a happy ending, no demigod powers, there is no sexual content but there is past abuse so tread lightly there</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:33:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25950310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies/pseuds/bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy nearly jumped back in shock when glowing yellow eyes snapped open, glaring at him with a strangely human-like rage. A fraction of a second later, the creature lunged through the water and slammed itself up against the glass, mouth wide and teeth bared as it let out a demonic shriek that was only muffled slightly by the water. Its fins flared, with tiny spots of eerie blue bioluminescence glowing and illuminating the creature’s pale sandy-colored skin laced with thin black markings like cracks in glass. It somewhat looked both like a chain catshark and an anglerfish and yet like neither at the same time. It truly was unlike anything Percy had ever seen before. And it was glaring ー teeth bared and fins flared ー at him with such anger and hatred and pain and fear that it shocked him just as much as the thing lunging at him had. </p><p>“What <i>is</i> that?” He asked Piper.</p><p>She shook her head. “No idea. According to the sign next to their tank, they’re ‘a beast the likes of which has never before been seen on earth’.” The words fell, hard and bitter, from her lips, a sure sign of her distaste for how they had treated this creature. Percy couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Percico Angst and Fluff Month 2020 (weeks 2 &amp; 3) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883434</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>197</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Percico Angst and Fluff Month 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For this month-long event, I’ll be posting 2 of the 4 works (weeks 1 and 4) on my general content account (<a>WildWolf25</a>) and 2 works (weeks 2 and 3) here on my NSFW account. This one isn’t NSFW but does contain some sensitive content. Apologies for technically not posting during week 2, but I was busy.</p><p>Prompts for week 2 were: Regret | “Can I trust you?” | Soulmate feeling</p><p>This one kind of ran away from the prompts and morphed into its own thing. 2/3 are in there, in small bits. But every week’s prompts for the event involved soulmate AU and I just can’t write that much soulmate AU (I like it well enough, but my ideas for it are few and far between, and I wanted some variety). </p><p>Also, content warning for mentions of animal abuse in the beginning, and references to past either abuse or animal abuse throughout, depending on how you view mermaids (specifically it is past abuse of a mermaid who is self-aware and has human-like intelligence)</p><p>And disclaimer that this is not how zoos work at all. Fantasy fiction magic, poof.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>Percy was having a lovely, well-deserved lunch break at a secluded table in the small cafe beside the underwater dolphin viewing window when the loudspeaker overhead blasted to life above him, startling him and every other family enjoying their lunch. </p><p>“<em> Perry Johanson! Report to the east keeper’s entrance immediately! </em>” Mr. D’s grating voice sounded even worse through the crackly loudspeaker, and the electric squeal that erupted as it clicked off did not help. One small child in a purple dress started crying, but Percy wasn’t sure if it was from the loud announcement or the fact that the noise had caused her to drop her ice cream on the ground. Percy shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and hastily threw his blue metal water bottle into his lunchbox, hurrying away before the girl’s father could spot his orange polo and ask the zoo staff for some discount or free cone as compensation.</p><p>He didn’t know what would cause the zoo director to call for him over the loudspeaker (because yes, despite the fumbled name, he did know Mr. D was asking for <em> him </em>… he had gotten used to the various iterations of his name over the years of working here), but the man sounded even more irate than usual, and that was not something Percy wanted to get on the wrong side of. He rushed over to the keeper’s entrance on the east side of the zoo and slid his ID card at the gate to unlock it before slipping inside, where a crowd of other keepers were waiting already.</p><p>“There you are,” Jason said by way of greeting. “Piper is on the warpath.”</p><p>“I didn’t eat the cupcake she left in the fridge,” Percy said quickly, which just earned him an arched brow and knowing look. “I mean… is that not what this is about?”</p><p>“No.” Jason crossed his arms and looked toward the gate. “An anonymous caller phoned the help desk, saying there was a traveling circus a few miles away and they had some concerns about animal abuse.”</p><p>A chill spread down Percy’s spine; ‘traveling circuses’ were always trouble. “And they contacted a zoo rather than the police or ASPCA because…?” </p><p>“They did, and the police just laughed it off,” Annabeth explained. “Because the caller claimed the circus had a mermaid.” </p><p>Percy stared at her. “So, like… a seal with a wig, or something?”</p><p>“We don’t know.” Annabeth lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “The caller was pretty adamant about what they saw. Piper got the details and rushed out with Grover; you know how the two of them get with animal abuse cases.” </p><p>Percy nodded. Piper was the sweetest, most charming woman on staff (at least when dealing with customers), and Grover had on multiple occasions been late to his duties because some animal fell asleep on him while feeding them and he didn’t have the heart to move their head off his lap. But gods help any poor soul who raised a hand against any creature ー even a fly or bee ー in their line of sight.</p><p>They heard the screech of tires before they saw the truck come careening around the bend. Grover pulled up hastily into a spot and Piper leapt out the passenger side door before he had even finished parking. Her orange polo was soaked like she had been splashed, and several locks of hair were loose from her braid. </p><p>“You vagabonds better compensate me for gas after your little escapade!” Mr. D called out, waving his thermos of diet coke at them. </p><p>“You guys aren’t going to believe this!” Grover called back, ignoring the zoo director. </p><p>Piper started rattling off stats as she unlocked and wrenched open the heavy doors at the back of the truck. “Five monkeys, malnourished and with lacerations and sores. Two macaws, an African Grey parrot, and one snow owl, all with over-clipped wings, and one of the macaws is blind in one eye. One white tiger cub, malnourished and likely suffering from strabismus and club foot. Several snakes, all with scale problems. Everyone’s in bad shape.”</p><p>“Shit,” Will swore quietly, the veterinary technician rushing forward to help. </p><p>They all started grabbing crates and carriers, working quickly to get the animals inside. Percy handed the last parrot off to Jason just as Piper climbed into the back of the dark truck. “Percy, I need you back here,” she said.</p><p>“Right,” Percy planted his hands on the floor of the truck and hauled himself up. It was dark and smelled of animals. If fear and pain could have a scent, he imagined it would be here too. He could barely make out the shape of Piper at the back of the truck, standing in front of a huge plexiglass tank. The dark water sloshed inside, tendrils of something darker than water swaying with the movement. There was something coiled up in the back corner of the tank. He crouched down to peer at it. An octopus? Really big fish? Small sea lion?</p><p>Percy nearly jumped back in shock when glowing yellow eyes snapped open, glaring at him with a strangely human-like rage. A fraction of a second later, the creature lunged forward and slammed itself up against the glass, mouth wide and teeth bared as it let out a demonic shriek that was only muffled slightly by the water. Its fins flared, with tiny spots of eerie blue bioluminescence glowing and illuminating the creature’s pale sandy-colored skin laced with thin black markings like cracks in glass. It somewhat looked both like a chain catshark and an anglerfish and yet like neither at the same time. It truly was unlike anything Percy had ever seen before. And it was glaring ー teeth bared and fins flared ー at him with such anger and hatred and pain and fear that it shocked him just as much as the thing lunging at him had. </p><p>“What <em> is </em>that?” He asked Piper.</p><p>She shook her head. “No idea. According to the sign next to their tank, they’re <em> ‘a beast the likes of which has never before been seen on earth’ </em>.” The words fell, hard and bitter, from her lips, a sure sign of her distaste for how they had treated this creature. Percy couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.</p><p>The creature in the tank snarled at them once more before darting back to the corner and curling up tightly, yellow eyes continuing to watch them suspiciously. In the sloshing water, Percy could just barely make out tendrils of something dark swaying in the waves before dispersing ー blood. </p><p>“They’re injured,” Piper said. “We need to get them to the marine center and get them checked out and into a tank.” She stood up. “I’ll drive. You stay back here and try to calm them down. I think they have some understanding of human speech.”</p><p>“Got it.” Percy nodded. </p><p>Piper left, climbing out of the truck and closing up the back. Left in the dark with what was obviously some kind of predatory creature unknown to man, Percy probably should have been a lot more scared than he was. But he knew this creature was probably more scared of him and this place. Especially when the engine rumbled to life under the floor and Piper began to drive (slowly and carefully, thank the gods, but it still must have been frightening).</p><p>Percy took out a small flashlight and clicked it on to the lowest brightness setting, careful to keep the beam aimed at the floor. The creature bristled, fins flashing and glowing brighter in a defensive display. Percy offered a friendly smile. </p><p>“Hello,” he said, keeping his voice gentle and warm. Even if the creature couldn’t understand human words, most animals responded to tone. “This is all pretty scary, huh? But we aren’t going to hurt you. I promise.”</p><p>Bared teeth and a distrustful glare was the only response he got. </p><p>Percy tilted his head. “Can you understand me?” </p><p>The creature tensed and gave a slow blink. That wasn’t really a clear answer. But something told Percy they could understand, at least a little. </p><p>“You’re hurt, huh?” He went on. “We want to heal you, so you won’t be hurt anymore. But that means we need to work together, and cooperate. If you fight us the whole time, we can’t help you, and you’ll just keep hurting. Do you understand that? We just want to help you.”</p><p>The creature snapped its mouth shut and retreated further back into the corner. Percy couldn’t hear, but it looked distinctly like the creature was growling at him. But it seemed more out of discomfort than hostility now.</p><p>The truck slowed to a halt, making the water in the tank jostle. Percy took a deep breath, bracing himself. Now would be the tricky part. </p><p>The next few hours were… difficult, to say the least. The mercreature ー they didn’t have a clue what else to call it, so that was what they were going with until they figured it out ー was extremely resistant to being removed from the transport tank. But with the aid of rope nets, a canvas sling, steel poles, and foam blocker boards, they managed to transfer the creature into the large empty tank that was usually reserved for dolphins that needed to be isolated from the exhibit due to illness, breeding, giving birth, or injuries. It was plenty spacious, but the mercreature was not swimming around the tank. It had curled up in the furthest corner, tucked behind a swaying kelp bed. </p><p>Percy sat on the edge of the deck beside the tank’s submerged platform where they did vet checks, his feet in the cold water. He was thoroughly soaked with water and his orange polo was stained with spots of blood. The mercreature had a couple of shallow lacerations on its arms and tail, but they had managed to treat them. He wished they hadn’t been forced to tranquilize the mercreature, but despite the shark-like appearance of its tail, flipping it onto its back had not put it into a state of tonic immobility like they thought, and had just made it mad. Not knowing what its body could handle, they had only used a very low dose of tranquilizer; just enough to slow it down so they could treat the injuries and release it into the tank. It still hadn’t held still long enough for them to get much biometric data on it or even tell if it was male or female (a little hard to tell anyway, given that they had no clue what the hell it <em> was </em>), or even remove the locked collar they found clasped around its neck. Percy had tried to reach for it, but had nearly gotten his hand bitten off. It was probably just an identification thing, or perhaps a GPS tracker like was used for wolves and lions, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving it on. </p><p>“Don’t you think you should dry off before you catch a cold, Seaweed Brain?” Annabeth’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see the other keeper leaning against the door. She had a teasing smile on her lips, but Percy knew her well enough to see the tiredness in her gray eyes. </p><p>“Just thinking,” he said, pulling his feet up out of the water. “How are the birds?”</p><p>Annabeth’s smile slipped and she looked away. “The parrots are recovering. The snow owl is in ICU.” She picked up the towel hanging by the door and handed it to him. “Will’s not sure she’ll pull through.” </p><p>Percy accepted the towel and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He hoped the snow owl would be alright, but the sad reality was that not every rescued animal made it. Jason and Annabeth were the best avian specialists they had, though, and there was no one who could handle owls better than Annabeth. He really hoped this one would pull through.</p><p>Annabeth nodded in the direction of the tank. “How’s this one?”</p><p>“Tranq seems to be wearing off, but they’re still hesitant to start roaming around,” Percy said. </p><p>“I read Piper’s report,” Annabeth said. “And did some digging online. This very well could be a completely new and undocumented creature. I mean, I never would have imagined things like mermaids could be real but…” she trailed off, gesturing toward the water where the creature was hiding. “Only five percent of the ocean has been explored. There are a lot of things we just don’t know about. And it looks like this is one of them.”</p><p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>Percy visited the mercreature every day. He checked on them whenever he could, and got himself assigned the primary caretaker (which didn’t take a lot of convincing; Mr. D might not <em> like </em>him, but even he had to admit Percy was the best marine biologist they had, and they would need the best to figure out how to care for this new creature)</p><p>The mercreature had finally started swimming laps around the tank, but tended to flee back to that corner when anyone entered the room. Percy managed to do his best observation sessions by keeping the lights off and sneaking into the underwater viewing area, slipping through a crack in the door and then sitting very still on the floor. Between the low angle, the darkness, and the thick glass warping the mercreature’s point of view, he managed to keep himself out of sight. But it felt a little like sneaking around and spying on the poor creature, so he didn’t like to do it often. He had to admit it was rather useful in the beginning, though, as it let him observe the mercreature swimming as opposed to curled up defensively in the corner.</p><p>He learned a lot from his observations. The creature looked to be about six feet long, head to tail tip. The anatomy appeared to indeed be a strange mix of marine animals he was already familiar with; the dorsal fin and caudal fin were reminiscent of that of a bull shark, including a little barb-like point on the end of the caudal. It appeared to have hide or skin rather than scales, which was also like a shark. The coloration was similar to a chain catshark, with a pale, cool sandy color cut by dark line markings. Observation with the tank’s overhead lights turned off yielded the realization that those dark line markings were also where many of the bioluminescent dots were, glowing dimly as the mercreature prowled their tank and shining brighter whenever they were startled.</p><p>The top half of the creature (from about the “waist” up, he couldn’t help but think, even though neither sharks nor fish had a “waist”, per se) was a little more baffling. There was a set of fins that looked like they would be called “pectoral fins” on a fish, but were located closer to the creature’s “hips” area, well below his arms. Those fins looked, to Percy, more consistent with that of a lionfish or some species of anglerfish, than those of a shark. Each one was made up of spiny-looking ocellae with black-striped banding, which was also studded with bioluminescent dots. The black markings that crossed over the tail like fractured ice faded into the sandy-gray coloration further up on its belly, giving it an almost humanlike appearance if one could ignore the gills on either side of the creature’s throat. Along the torso were more bioluminescent points that were invisible in the light, but in the dark they gave the creature an eerie glow that made it appear as though the ribs, spine, and other bones were glowing under the thick hide. It had two arms, long and slender, that each ended with five opposable fingers connected by webbing that matched that of the pectoral fins, and each finger was tipped with what looked like razor-sharp, obsidian-black claws. He had watched the mercreature use those hands to grab fish and those claws to pry open shellfish that were thrown in as food, so he knew they were quick, agile, and strong.   </p><p>The face was the hardest for Percy to catch glimpses of. In the rare moments they made eye contact, the mercreature would immediately turn tail and flee to the corner with a flash of fins and bubbles. From the brief glimpses he could catch, the mercreature’s face was as beautiful as it was eerie. A small nose, sharp cheekbones, large pitch-black eyes lit only by glowing amber-colored irises… and then there was that mouth, so cute and innocent-looking, those strangely human-like lips hiding dozens if not close to a hundred razor-sharp, serrated teeth. The black, fractured-ice-looking markings that covered the mercreature’s tail and climbed up their back made a few notable appearances above the eyes (almost like eyebrows) and following the sharp cut of their cheekbones, which could glow like the rest of the markings, as if to direct hapless prey right toward that deadly mouth. The mercreature’s head was also adorned with black… well, it looked like hair, but since most marine creatures didn’t have hair other than whiskers, Percy suspected it to be sensory organs, or setae to detect movement and chemicals in the water. Threaded into the black were strands of bioluminescent blue, probably another way to lure prey towards its face.</p><p>Percy might not be a little fish, but he couldn’t help but feel drawn in and enchanted by the mysterious mercreature’s appearance. He took to bringing his sketchbook along with his observation forms, taking the opportunity to draw the creature in detail while it swam around exploring the tank. It grew a little braver every day, he was happy to see. Even now, he watched the creature weave between the kelp fronds planted along the floor of the tank, letting the slimy leaves brush against their hide. They turned over, tail moving lazily. Percy noticed what looked like two small fins tucked up tight below the anal fins, small and nearly invisible to the untrained eye. Claspers, most likely, which meant that this was probably a male, Percy thought to himself as he added that to his sketch. But then again, claspers were a part of male <em> shark </em> anatomy, and while this creature did happen to look a fair amount like a shark, there were clearly some differences, as was evident from the way the mercreature could flip onto its ー <em> his </em> ー back and roll over again without going into tonic immobility. Percy was watching him do that right now, as he played in the kelp fronds. </p><p>Percy checked his watch, wondering how much time he had before he needed to go feed the penguins. Suddenly the merman in the tank froze, head snapping towards the glass and eyes locked on Percy. Percy froze too, not wanting to startle him, and cursed internally; the watch face must have glinted in the dim light when he moved. </p><p>The merman narrowed his eyes and inched closer to the glass, tilting his head curiously. Percy didn’t even dare to breathe; unlike every other time he had been caught, this time the creature had yet to flee to the corner of the tank. The merman watched him for a long while with his head slightly tilted, then turned away and continued swimming, only throwing a few confused and cautious looks over his shoulder. </p><p>Moving slowly, Percy got up from his spot sitting on the floor and gathered up his clipboard and sketchbook. He slipped out the door and locked it, then headed up the stairs to the main deck. Unlocking the door to the platform beside the tank, he wiped off the bottoms of his water shoes and stepped inside the enclosure. There was a small platform that on one side dropped off into the twenty-foot-deep tank, but the adjacent side was connected to the shallow, submerged ledge where keepers usually performed check-ups on the animals. Percy didn’t think he could coax the merman onto the ledge for a while, but maybe he would come up to the place where the platform met the deep water. He sat himself cross-legged near the edge of the platform (but not <em> too </em>near, in case the merman was feeling hostile) and waited.</p><p>It was hard to see past the ever-shifting surface of the water, but he thought the merman’s swimming had slowed and he was glancing up toward Percy’s direction frequently. Finally, at long last, he swam towards the surface, growing larger as he drew closer. The top of his head broke the surface, glowing eyes peeking out above the water’s edge. </p><p>Percy smiled. “Hello.” </p><p>The merman startled a little, retreating just slightly before coming back up. He stared at him, unblinking and silent. </p><p>Percy cleared his throat. “Uh, sorry about watching you, earlier. I was just…” <em> observing you? Spying on you? Studying you like a creature in a lab? </em> None were particularly good options for a first meeting. “Well, I’ve never seen anything like you before.”</p><p>The merman watched him impassively, head cocked just slightly as he listened.</p><p>“Do you, um,” Percy floundered a little, feeling uncertain of himself. It was probably a long shot, but... “Have you ever seen anything like me before?” He asked, trying to gauge the merman’s level of human interaction.</p><p>The merman said nothing, but after a moment, he nodded.</p><p>Percy’s eyes widened. “So, you understand me?” He asked, excited.</p><p>The merman lifted a hand out of the water, fingers pinched with claw tips barely an inch apart. </p><p>“A little?” Percy checked. The merman nodded. Percy brightened. “Can you speak?” </p><p>The merman flinched. His fingers pinched closer together, about a centimeter apart ー a little, but even less. </p><p>“That’s okay,” Percy said. “Can you try? Please? It would really help me understand what you need.” </p><p>The merman shifted in the water, seeming hesitant. </p><p>“How about just your name?” Percy tried again. </p><p>The merman looked puzzled. </p><p>“What do you like to be called?” Percy clarified. He touched his chest. “I am Percy. My name is Percy.” He extended his hand, palm up, toward the merman. “What is your name?”</p><p>With a small flick of his caudal fin, he lifted the rest of his head out of the water. His gills flared, and he quickly submerged himself up to the neck again. He probably couldn’t breathe out of the water, Percy realized. </p><p>The merman touched a hand to his chest under the water and frowned for a moment, deep in thought. He opened his mouth, and let out two sounds. The first was a quiet, hissing sort of “nii…” and the second was harder, like the click of a dolphin sharply lowered, “kkoh.”</p><p>“Nii-ko,” Percy repeated slowly, but his vocal cords couldn’t quite get it to sound the same as the merman. “Nico. Can I call you Nico?”</p><p>The merman nodded. </p><p>Percy smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Nico.” He turned his arms over, drawing lines on the skin where he knew the merman had been injured. “You were hurt, before. How do you feel now?” </p><p>Nico lifted his arms out of the water, examining the healed scars. He looked at Percy again. “Bet...ter,” he said, slowly and with some difficulty. </p><p>“That’s good!” Percy said brightly. “We want you to feel better. Is there anything else we can do to help you?” </p><p>Nico thought about it. “Food?” </p><p>“Yeah, I can bring you some more food,” Percy said. “Hey, what kind of food do you like? We’ve kind of been guessing, since we’ve never seen anything like you before. What do you like to eat?”</p><p>Nico tilted his head, frowning thoughtfully at the water for a moment. Percy realized that he might not know human names for different types of fish, while Percy wouldn’t know merfolk names for fish. </p><p>Luckily, Nico solved that issue by bringing his hands up, heels pressed together and clawed fingertips touching, like a shell. He then opened his mouth and let out a noise that was a perfect reproduction of a loud <em> crack </em>-ing sound while he mimed ripping the shell apart.</p><p>Percy blinked, a little taken aback by the graphic display. “O...kay, so shellfish…” he said slowly. </p><p>Nico nodded. </p><p>“Alright. Well, I will get some more shellfish to you as soon as I can.” Percy smiled and got to his feet, giving the merman a little wave. “I’ll see you soon, Nico.” </p><p>Nico blinked impassively before disappearing beneath the surface again. </p><p>~~~Nico~~~</p><p>Nico had always hated humans. He hadn’t always known about them, but from the moment he first encountered the strange, two-legged creatures, he had born a deep-seated hatred and distrust of them. How could he not? Humans had killed his mother, shooting her with a harpoon gun and leaving her to die when it became clear that she had been mortally wounded and would be of no use to them. Humans had kidnapped him and his sister, Bianca, and later murdered her in cold blood when she refused to submit to them. He had to learn the hard way how to decipher their loud, grating speech and shouts, or risk ending up like his sister. He had been young and scared, and was forced to grow up jaded just to survive ー survive in a small, dirty tank where his human captors made him swim and jump for the perverse amusement of other humans. He hated their stares, their screams of delight and horror at his appearance. He hated them for taking him from his home, for killing his family, for starving him, putting him on display like one of their freakish stuffed creatures that stank of death and stared with hollow glass eyes. Nico had always hated humans, and he had vowed he always would. Humans were cruel. They were heartless. They were monsters worse than whatever beast they insisted he was.</p><p>But now… now, he had a new word to add to that list: confusing. That was exactly what this new human, this “Percy”, was ー confusing. He acted differently than any other human Nico had ever interacted with, and gradually he came to see that Percy wasn’t the only one. He had just been too blind with fear and apprehension to notice it. </p><p>The girl with the jewel-bright eyes and the guy with the curly hair on his head and his chin, who had taken him from his tank and put him in an even smaller tank ー he had hated them, and assumed they were no different than the men who had taken him from the ocean. Especially when they put him in a dark place with the other circus animals, a place that shook and moved and sounded like there were roaring waves surrounding them. And then they had stopped and there were <em> more </em>humans, all of them unfamiliar, touching him and moving him and sticking him with needles that sapped his strength… Nico had been terrified beyond belief. He was going to die, he thought. They were going to kill him, he had thought; cut him open and pull out his insides and fill him with stuffing before sticking his corpse in a glass display case, just like his first captors had always threatened.</p><p>But they hadn’t. Instead, they put him in a huge tank empty of anything except a few plants (he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen plants, other than the horrid green algae that clouded his tank and slowly choked him with every gulp of water). The water was clear, cool, and with a slight current ー a world apart from the cramped, dingy, filthy tank he had been in for most of his life. His first breath of fresh water was so jarring it had left him feeling dizzy. </p><p>And then, most shockingly, they had left him alone. He saw them only when they came to feed him each day (that itself was new; his old captors had often starved him to weaken him so he wouldn’t fight them). The one who came most often was that one with the dark hair and eyes that reminded Nico of the clear waters where he had grown up ー the human Nico now knew as Percy. </p><p>Percy confused Nico most of all. He didn’t have words to describe Percy. How did he describe “the opposite of cruel”? If there was any such word, he didn’t know it. Granted, even Percy had made him wary at first. He sat beside the tank and watched him through the rippling water, or sketched him through the huge (clean) glass window under the surface. It made Nico’s hide prickle on instinct. But the way Percy watched him was different than the people at the circus, in a way he wasn’t sure how to describe. He looked at Nico not like he was a freak of nature, but like he was wondrous. He <em> spoke to </em> Nico, not just <em> at </em>him, and tried to ask him about himself even though Nico had trouble speaking back. </p><p>In time, Nico found himself actually <em> wanting </em>to speak to Percy, in a way that he had never wanted to speak to a human before. And during those times when Percy would sit and draw him for hours, Nico found himself moving closer to the glass and observing the human with as much interest as the human observed him. He wondered if the dark-colored strands atop his head were extrasensory organs like Nico’s, and how they worked if he wasn’t underwater. He wondered how the human could breathe with no gills. He wondered what his split tails ー no, legs and feet, Percy had told him ー looked like under his “clothes” and “water shoes”. He wondered if he had tough, sandpaper-like hide like Nico, or if it was softer like it looked to be. He wondered what it would feel like to touch him, or even what it would feel like for Percy to touch him. It had been so, so long since Nico had been touched by any living being without them hurting him. He wondered, as he watched Percy’s pinkish, webless fingers idly spin his pencil, what those hands might feel like against his own cold, webbed hands.</p><p>Nico looked up from Percy’s hands and noticed the human was looking not at the drawing on the paper, but directly at Nico. That wasn’t so strange (he was drawing Nico, after all, so he often looked at him), but the smile he was giving him… it was so gentle and soft, so different than any way any other human had looked at him. It made his heart feel warm in his chest and skip a beat. The unfamiliar reaction scared him a little, and he quickly turned tail and fled back to his corner in the kelp bed. He didn’t bother to look back and see Percy’s reaction, or if he left, but the human was gone by the time Nico did risk looking.</p><p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>The merman might have been adept at quickly prying apart mussels, clams, scallops, urchins, and shrimp, but it took a lot longer for him to come out of his own figurative shell. Now that he had demonstrated a human-like intelligence and ability to communicate, though, there was a lot more pressure on Percy to figure out what he was and what should be done with him. In a way, Percy didn’t mind, because it gave him reason to spend more time with Nico. Gradually, Nico became more accustomed to Percy observing him, both from the platform beside the tank and through the underwater viewing window. He didn’t seem to mind, as long as Percy made his presence clear and didn’t spy on him when he wasn’t expecting it. He did have some days where he would rather not be observed, though, and he made it clear by baring his teeth and displaying his glowing fins until he was left alone. Most of the time, though, he seemed just as curious about Percy as Percy was about him. </p><p>Percy made dozens more sketches of Nico ー swimming, eating, dozing in the kelp beds… They tried to add a floating ball to the tank once for enrichment, but based on the way Nico chucked the plastic sphere at the door the second it closed, he didn’t appreciate it, so they removed it quickly. The only form of enrichment that he seemed to enjoy at all was when they released live fish into the tank, and he idly chased them around for a few hours before picking them off to snack on. </p><p>Communication remained their biggest obstacle, though.</p><p>“Is it difficult for you to talk?” Percy asked one morning, sitting on the waterside platform with one leg tucked under himself and the other foot swirling lazily in the water. </p><p>Nico, floating upright with his head poking out of the water about five feet away (much closer than before!) nodded. He ran his fingers along the sides of his throat, and Percy was close enough to see the gills there flare as water rushed through them. “Need… under water. Breathe.” He frowned and ran the fingers of one hand up and down the length of his throat, while the other shook quickly, like a tremble. “Words… feel weird.” </p><p>Percy rubbed his own throat and considered that. “The vibration?” He shook his hand as Nico had, to show what the word meant. “Yeah, I suppose it would feel weird, if you’re not used to it,” he admitted. “Does it hurt?”</p><p>Nico sighed, pushing more water out his gills. “Not hurt… just. Weird. And hard. Hard to… make.” </p><p>“Hard to make the sounds?” Percy filled in the gaps. From what he could tell, Nico was much more used to communicating in low clicks, hisses, and what he described as “feeling sound”, which Percy guessed might have something to do with echolocation. But guesses were all he had to work with, and he was desperate to learn more about Nico’s needs and wants and where he had come from, which he couldn’t learn until they worked out a better way to communicate. Even a few words seemed difficult for the merman, and sometimes the sounds he could produce were just as difficult for Percy to interpret. </p><p>What was more, speaking seemed to settle a dark cloud over the merman; where he usually started off an encounter bright with curiosity, he often grew visibly frustrated and terse the more they went on. Percy had a bad feeling about why that might be, especially after one early encounter where he had asked Nico what words he <em> did </em>know.</p><p>“Some,” Nico started, looking thoughtful. “Food. Good.” He paused, then made a motion with his hand. “Jump.” </p><p>A cold feeling started to settle in Percy’s stomach. That was a training signal. </p><p>Nico frowned, his expression darkening. “Bad. Punish-ment. Fucking beast.”</p><p>Percy’s heart dropped into his gut. “Nico…” </p><p>He thought it couldn’t get worse. Then Nico lifted a hand and tensed his body, fingers contorting into something painful-looking. “Shock.” </p><p>Percy felt like he had been doused in ice water. “They shocked you?” </p><p>Nico nodded, sinking down to his nose in the water and casting his eyes away. But Percy didn’t miss the way his hand reached for his throat.</p><p>“That collar…” Percy realized with horror. “That’s a shock collar? That’s how they hurt you?” He pointed to his own neck, demonstrating. </p><p>Nico nodded solemnly. </p><p>“Oh, Nico…” Percy’s heart ached and regret washed over him like a tidal wave. “I didn’t think… I thought it was a tracking device, or for identification. I didn’t realize… I’m so sorry, you’ve been living with that on all this time…” Had he been living in fear of it turning on? The owners of the traveling circus had been arrested and charged with so many counts of animal abuse, trafficking, and fraud that they had gotten locked up for a long time. But Nico had no way of knowing that, or what it meant, or even that he was out of range of whatever remote had been used to shock him. For all he knew, the collar could have been activated at any time. </p><p>“Can I take it off?” Percy asked, miming the action on himself. </p><p>Conflict flashed over the merman’s expression and he shook his head, looking fearful. “I can’t… Trouble. Punish.” </p><p>“No, no trouble. No punishment,” Percy promised. “That thing can’t hurt you now. Those people can’t hurt you here. But you shouldn’t have to wear that.” </p><p>Nico looked thoughtful, fingering the collar as he considered it. Finally, he gave a small, hesitant nod. “Please,” he said, his voice quiet. </p><p>“Okay. Can you come over here?” Percy asked, slipping off the platform and seating himself on the underwater shelf. The cold water came up to his chest where he sat, and he shivered through his wetsuit. </p><p>He could see the hesitation burning in his eyes; <em> can I trust you? </em> After all, it wasn’t so long ago that the only humans that had touched him had hurt him terribly. Percy just hoped that his treatment here and the rapport they had tentatively built would be enough to take this risk.</p><p>It seemed so ー after a few minutes of deliberation, Nico flicked his tail to put himself horizontal again and swam onto the shelf. His pectoral fins skimmed the underwater shelf, and his triangular dorsal fin jutted out of the water like a true shark. Percy often forgot just how big he was, with the distance that was usually between them, until the merman was right next to him in the water, close enough to touch. </p><p>“Can I touch you? Here?” Percy pointed to his own neck, making a motion like he was sweeping hair out of the way. </p><p>Nico didn’t say anything, but he nodded. </p><p>“Okay,” Percy slowly reached down and touched his dark hair. It wasn’t really hair, he thought; it was far too soft, like silk threads. Nico twitched, jumping a little at the contact, and Percy wondered again if they might be sensory filaments. He tried to be as gentle as possible as he brushed them aside so he could see the device around his neck. It was black and fitted snugly around his throat, and Percy realized now that the kevlar-like material was covering the bottom of his gills. It was no wonder he had difficulty breathing and speaking. Percy felt awful that he hadn’t noticed that something was wrong before. Turning his attention to the bulky box on the back of the collar, where the electrical parts were likely at, he realized two things: one, that the damn thing was locked with a key they didn’t have, and two, he didn’t know if trying to break the contraption open would trigger a shock in the process. That would be especially bad in the water (what were those bastards <em> thinking </em> , shocking a living creature <em> in the water </em>?)</p><p>Percy sighed and stroked a hand down Nico’s back. “I’m sorry… I don’t know how to take this off without hurting you…” he thought about it, then realized something. “But I think I know someone who can.” </p><p>He reached for his walkie talkie that was resting near his towel, and spoke into it. “Leo Valdez, do you copy?”</p><p>Nico frowned distrustfully at the device, especially when it crackled to life. <em> “Valdez here. What’s up?” </em> </p><p>“Can you come to the marine rehab building, tank 3?” Percy asked. “I need your help with something.”</p><p><em> “Copy that. Be there in five.” </em> Leo replied.</p><p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>Leo was considerably more bubbly and energetic than Nico was used to seeing in a keeper, but since the young man also had a fascination with anything mechanical, he was the best person to help. Percy also knew that Leo, forgetful and prone to leaving his keys at work or in his car, was an adept lockpick. </p><p>Leo hissed and let out a string of rapid-fire curses in Spanish under his breath as he put his feet in the chilly water of the pool. “This is <em> way </em> too cold for anything to live… How the hell are you <em> sitting </em>in it, Perce?”</p><p>“The wetsuit helps,” Percy said. “And this is a comfortable temperature for most marine creatures.”</p><p>“I’m glad I live on land,” Leo laid out his tools on the deck. “Alright, let me see what gear Sharkboy’s rocking.” </p><p>“His name is Nico,” Percy reminded him. Nico, clearly not used to having a new person even knee-deep in his tank, was sticking close to Percy and keeping a hand on his knee (whether it was for balance or for comfort, he couldn’t tell). Percy was just glad he hadn’t fled to deeper water. </p><p>Percy brushed Nico’s hair off to the side and made sure his gills were staying adequately submerged while Leo examined the device. </p><p>“Do you think you can get it off without hurting him?” Percy asked.</p><p>“I should be able to.” Leo reached for his lockpicking tools and got to work on the lock. Blessedly, he was much quieter as he worked, all of his attention zeroed in on his task. </p><p>Nico looked very uncomfortable with a stranger’s hands so close to his neck. His tail flicked from side to side uneasily, but his grip on Percy’s knee and Percy’s hand steadying his side kept him from moving in the water. Percy ran a hand along his side, hoping to soothe him. His skin was cold and tough, almost like the hide of a shark. Even though it was daytime, his bioluminescent points were glowing, showing his distress. When Leo turned away to rifle through his toolbelt sitting on the dry deck, Nico actually wrapped his arms around Percy’s middle and buried his face in the blue neoprene of his wetsuit. Percy petted him and whispered reassuring words to soothe him. Leo flashed Percy a knowing smile and kept working. </p><p>At long last, there was a loud click and the lock popped open. </p><p>“Got it!” Leo said brightly. Luckily he still had a hand on it, because with the way Nico ripped it off with a snarl, it might have ended up at the bottom of the tank otherwise. Leo examined it curiously while Nico rubbed his neck and sank fully under the water, submerging his gills freely for the first time in gods only knew how long. Percy gave him a few moments, then when the merman went back to hugging his middle, Percy coaxed him up to the surface to check the state of his neck. There was some bruising and old scars, and the lower gills were red from being pressed on so long, but nothing seemed infected so he let him be.</p><p>“Thank you so much, Leo,” Percy told him, sweeping a hand over Nico’s back to soothe him. </p><p>“No problem.” Leo peered down at the coller. “This looks like a modified shock collar meant for dogs. They <em> can </em>get wet, but this really shouldn’t have been fully submerged in water. These things are powerful enough without amplifying the current like that. I’ll take it apart and catalogue what they did with it, and then, I don’t know, this feels like something that should be destroyed in a violent explosion.”</p><p>“Good idea.” Percy seconded that. He was tempted to set the damn thing on fire himself.</p><p>“Well, see you later,” Leo pulled his feet out of the cold water. He glanced down at Nico, who still had his arms around Percy’s middle under the water. Leo smirked. “Have fun making fishy faces at each other.” He pursed his lips like a fish… or a kiss.</p><p>Percy felt his ears grow red and hot. “That’sー no, we’re notー”</p><p>“Sure. That’s why he’s wrapped around you like an octopus,” Leo snickered, getting to his feet. He left with a friendly wave, tools and collar in hand. </p><p>Percy sighed and looked down at the merman hugging him. He didn’t know what had caused this sudden change in behavior… Only an hour ago, the closest Nico had ever willingly gotten to anyone was about six feet, and now, he was holding onto Percy like a lifeline. Percy swept a hand along his side under the water. “Nico? Hey, are you okay?” </p><p>Nico just clung to him tighter, claws digging into the neoprene wetsuit. Percy realized he was shivering, and his gills were pushing water in and out at a much more rapid rate than normal. </p><p><em> He’s crying… </em>Percy realized, despite the absence of any tears. Or at the very least, he was obviously very emotional. And all Percy could do was hold him, rub his back, pet his hair, and keep murmuring soft reassurances that he was safe here, no one was going to hurt him, they would protect him. </p><p>At long last, Nico turned over onto his back, floating so that his face was above the water while his gills were still under. He looked tired, but relieved. “Thank you,” he said quietly. His hands came up to rub the irritated skin around his throat. “Hurt… so long. And… fear, always.”</p><p>Percy smiled sadly. “I’m just sorry it took us so long to realize it was hurting you. I wish we could have taken it off sooner.”</p><p>Nico relaxed into the water so that just his face was above the surface, and looped an arm around Percy’s waist to keep from floating away. He looked like he was deep in thought, but seemed content to stay where he was for the time being. And if that was practically cuddled up to Percy with his cheek pressed to his stomach, well, Percy wasn’t going to complain. Especially when it gave him the chance to see Nico up close, closer than he ever had. </p><p>Percy smoothed a hand down his side, careful to only stroke in one direction on his tough, sandpaper-like skin. “You’re really beautiful, you know that?” The words slipped out of him before he could stop them, soft and filled with awe. </p><p>Glowing yellow and black eyes flicked up to look at him, confused. </p><p>“Has anyone ever told you that?” Percy asked. “That you’re beautiful?”</p><p>Nico was quiet for a moment, then shook his head. “Horrifying. Monster. Beast. Freak.”</p><p>“No,” Percy said firmly. “They’re wrong. You’re the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen.”</p><p>Nico perked up at that, but still looked confused. “Person?” </p><p>“Yeah,” Percy smiled. “You don’t have to be human to be a person.”</p><p>Nico looked away, digesting that. A soft, shy smile spread over his lips and his bioluminescent points glowed a little brighter as he squeezed his arm around Percy’s waist.</p><p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>There was a marked change in Nico’s behavior after that day. He swam faster and more freely, and smiled more often. He looked and acted much less nervous overall. He was less wary of other keepers, though he was still choosy about who he let in his tank. He even agreed to a checkup and for them to collect some basic biometric data on him. But even then, they still had no idea if his data could be considered regular and healthy for his species, or even what his species <em> was </em>. Nico himself could provide few answers. Talking was still difficult for him, and the more they examined him, the more Percy understood why; his respiratory system, throat, teeth, and tongue were all hindering his ability to speak as humans did, and their own inability to pick up many of his sound frequencies and echolocation signals all made it impossible for them to understand his natural communication signals. They needed to find a middle ground to be able to communicate freely. </p><p>When the realization hit him, Percy felt like an idiot for not having thought of it sooner. He came back from a family reunion over the weekend armed with a brilliant idea and a bucket of Nico’s favorite fish and shellfish for breakfast. He didn’t know how Nico would react to this idea, given his rather traumatic history with training signals, but hopefully Percy could explain it in a way that would show it as a good thing, rather than something to be afraid of. </p><p>“Hi, Nico,” Percy waved, sitting down on the edge of the platform with his feet in the water after he finished his morning rounds. “Did you enjoy your breakfast?” </p><p>Nico nodded with a smile and handed over the empty shells and crab carapace for Percy to collect and throw away. Sometimes he kept an especially pretty shell or two for himself, tying them to the kelp patch where he liked to sleep like underwater windchimes, but most of them he gave back after he was finished eating the contents. </p><p>Percy put the empty shells in the bucket and set it aside. “So, I was thinking. Can I tell you about my brother?” </p><p>Nico tilted his head, looking a bit confused, but nodded. He swam a little closer and curled a hand around Percy’s ankle, his new favorite way to prevent himself from drifting away in the fake current that circulated his tank while they were talking. </p><p>“So, my brother, Tyson ー or, well, he’s actually my half brother, but to make it simple, I just call him my brother,” Percy began. “He <em> can </em>talk, but sometimes he doesn’t want to, or it becomes difficult for him. He says sometimes it feels like there’s too much going on around him and inside of him and words just don’t work like they’re supposed to. It used to happen a lot more when he was a kid, and he would get really upset and frustrated, because he couldn’t let us know what he needed, and we couldn’t understand what we could do to help him.” Percy lifted his hands, opening and closing them. “But then, we figured out that he can talk with his hands. There’s a whole language, called Sign Language, for people who can’t talk, or can’t hear, or who just need a little help communicating sometimes.” As he talked, he started signing in time with his words, going slowly so Nico could see what he was doing. “My family learned how to sign to help my brother. And I think it could help you too. All you need to talk are your hands.” </p><p>Nico looked intrigued, but still wary. He brought his hand up, doing the same signs he had showed Percy before when discussing the words he knew. “Jump. Come. Swim around?” </p><p>“It’s kind of like that, but really, <em> really </em> not,” Percy tried to explain. “What you were taught were training signals. But they’re one-sided; people made the signals, and you did what they said to do, right?”</p><p>Nico nodded. “Not… taught. Just learned. With pain.”</p><p>Percy felt his heart ache. “Right. This wouldn’t be like that at all. This would be <em> you </em> using your hands to communicate with <em> us </em>, and tell us what you need or want.”</p><p>Nico was quiet as he thought about it for a long while. Percy waited patiently; he knew he was asking a lot, for Nico to do something that looked ー on the surface ー like something his abusers used to do to him. </p><p>Finally, though, Nico nodded and looked up, his expression cautious but hopeful. “You… teach?”</p><p>Percy brightened, relieved at the response. “Of course! Do you want to start now?” When Nico nodded, Percy smiled. “Okay. I’ll use my words to help show you what the signs mean, but remember, you don’t have to use your voice to respond. After all, this is supposed to be easier for you than speaking.” He lifted his hands and started with something basic and easy to understand. “My name is Percy. Your name is Nico.” </p><p>Nico’s sharp eyes watched the movements carefully. Then to Percy’s delight, he signed it back: <em> my name is Nico. Your name is Percy.  </em></p><p>“Good!” Percy said and signed excitedly. “That’s perfect, Nico, great job!” </p><p>Nico smiled and his bioluminescent points glowed a little brighter, his tail flicking at the praise. </p><p>After that, Percy spent as much time as possible teaching Nico how to sign. It was difficult at first, especially because there was so much of human language that Nico hadn’t been exposed to at all. Much like his attempts to speak, he picked up words easier than he picked up grammar or sentence structure. But gradually, he was able to improve and get more and more skillful, especially now that he had a way to “talk” that didn’t tire him out so much. Percy even got some of the other keepers in on it, so that Nico wasn’t limited to talking to just him. Annabeth’s cousin Magnus, who didn’t work at the zoo but was fluent in ASL because of his adoptive parents, was quickly booked solid with his cousin’s coworkers wanting to hire him for tutoring. </p><p>Nico was shy around the others at first, but quickly grew to enjoy their company. He got along especially well with Hazel, who despite her dislike of being near deep water, was eager to use her own sign language skills to help him practice, and she sometimes spent hours signing with him through the window of the underwater viewing area. Occasionally she would even bring a snake from her work at the reptile house wrapped around her neck or wrist to show Nico. Jason, who had taken ASL in high school, also spent a lot of time with Nico. Even Reyna would wander over from the administration office on her lunch breaks and spend a handful of minutes sitting on the edge of the tank with a foot in the water, chatting with Nico. Percy tried not to impose on their time together, so he didn’t know what they talked about, but Nico seemed happy following their encounters. It took him a little while, but he really began to open up and come out of his shell, so to speak. He was especially pleased with the fact that now he didn’t have to ‘drown his gills in air’ (as he put it) by surfacing to talk with them; he could sign through the underwater viewing window, or even stick his hands above the surface in a pinch. But most of the time, when it was Percy he was working with, he liked to be near the surface anyway, with Percy on the waterside platform or the submerged ledge. </p><p><em> I like being close to you, </em> he said when Percy asked him about it. <em> The glass is okay, but I like hearing your voice and seeing you.  </em></p><p>Percy smiled. “I like being close to you too,” he said and signed. </p><p>It was much easier for Nico to open up, now that he had a communication method that wasn’t painful or uncomfortable for him. Percy was able to ask about what he liked and disliked, and if there was anything they could do to make his tank more comfortable (<em> It’s a little bare… can I have a couple more kelp plants? And the salt level is a little low </em> ). He was also able to get him to talk about the circus they had rescued him from ( <em> I don’t know how long I was there for… when they first caught me, I was much smaller. I was in the same tank the whole time, and slowly I got bigger and it felt smaller </em> ), and what he could remember of the ocean and his family ( <em> My pod was small. My mother, my sister, and me. Sometimes my father would join us for a season, but adult males are often alone, with their own territories </em> ). He didn’t really have a name for his species, nor did he know if there were other merfolk species out there. He also didn’t know where he had come from before being captured ( <em> The waters were warm and clear, but became cooler between seasons. There were some shallow places we seldom went, because of humans, and some deeper places we seldom went, because of the pressure. We never went to the surface, so I don’t know what it looked like up there </em> ) Even trying to narrow it down by flora and fauna, with Percy showing him pictures of coral, fish, seagrass, and marine life, yielded inconclusive results at best ( <em> ah, yes, dolphins. Maybe that kind, or that, or that… I don’t know, they’re so rude, we always stayed away from them. Pretentious squeakers </em>). He recognized several fish species endemic to the Mediterranian and Adriatic seas, but also some from the Atlantic Ocean, and admitted that it had been a long time and his memory could be wrong.</p><p><em> Are you asking me about this because you want to bring me back there? </em>Nico asked.</p><p>Percy sighed and laid the laminated <em> Fish of the Mediterranian </em> poster on his lap. “I don’t know. On the one hand, the goal of rehabilitation is to be able to one day release the rehabilitee into the wild. And this tank can’t possibly compare to the open ocean. Surely you need more space.”</p><p><em> This is big. I like it, </em>Nico said.</p><p>“It’s bigger than the ten by four by six foot filterless box you were kept in for gods only know how many years,” Percy pointed out. “But wouldn’t you rather return to the ocean?” </p><p>Nico thought about it. <em> But I like it here. You’re here. </em> </p><p>Percy smiled sadly. “And I like getting to see you every day, too. But we have to think about what’s best for you.”</p><p>Nico lifted his hands, then paused, frowning in thought. He dipped underwater for a bit, taking a breather while he gathered his thoughts. When he came back up, he seemed sad, and his hands moved slowly, like he was choosing his words carefully. </p><p><em> I don’t know if I can live in the wild, </em> he admitted. <em> It was so long ago. My family is gone. I should be able to survive on my own at my age, but there is so much I don’t know. I can’t hunt, or claim or defend territory. The humans that took me… they took so much </em> <b> <em>from</em> </b> <em> me. </em></p><p>Percy’s heart ached from him, at hearing (or seeing) him admit what Percy feared all along. Nico might not be able to survive on his own in the wild. </p><p><em> I want to stay here. Please, </em>Nico signed before reaching out to hold onto Percy’s ankle under the water. </p><p>Percy reached down and took his hand. “It’s more complicated than that, Nico. If you stay, we can’t keep you in this rehab tank forever. You would probably have to move to an exhibit tank. It would be nice, with lots of fish and coral and rock structures and plants… but people would be able to look at you through the glass. And because you’re so… special, there would be a <em> lot </em>of people wanting to look at you.”</p><p>Nico frowned. He pulled his hand back just long enough to sign. <em> Like the circus?  </em></p><p>“Yes, and no,” Percy said slowly. “You would have much more space. You could hide in the rocks if you wanted. No tricks or jumping. You would be fed well and taken care of. But people would look at you through the glass. I’m worried it will scare you, and remind you of that place.”</p><p>Nico cast his gaze away and sank down up to his eyes in the water. He didn’t let go of Percy’s hand as he lifted the other and signed, <em> I’ll think about it. </em></p><p>“Okay.” Percy squeezed his hand. “I’ll try to think of other options too.” </p><p>~~~Nico~~~</p><p>Nico had promised he would think about it, and he did. </p><p>He swam past the underwater glass window and tried to imagine it full of human faces pressed up against it, staring at him all day. He tapped his claws against the thick glass of the window and wondered if it would muffle the sound of humans speaking and shouting and pointing at the strange creature inside. He touched the textured, fake rocks that lined the back wall and tried to imagine little underwater arches and caves like Percy had described… would they be enough to hide behind, when he needed a break from the prying eyes of the crowd? He wondered and worried and swam himself in circles, until the overhead lights dimmed. Then, he curled up in his favorite corner to sleep, and wondered if his worries would be less in the morning.</p><p>Unfortunately, a day of worrying took its toll on him. He dreamed of the circus ー not for the first time, but the first time in a while. He dreamed of darkness and shadows choking him while eyes watched, both uncaring and morbidly fascinated. He dreamed of gleaming eyes and piggish faces pressed against grimy green glass. He dreamed of endless noise surrounding him, assaulting him, relentless and unpredictable in pitch and volume. He dreamed of water that tasted slimy and acrid from filth and blood. He dreamed of his limbs and tail burning with pain and bruises and broken bones, and the sharp ache of hunger that burned him up from inside until he was so weak he couldn’t move. He dreamed of heavy boots falling like a death march on the metal grate over his pitiful tank, the last thing he heard before blinding pain erupted from his throat, so intense that he blacked out before he could even scream. </p><p>Nico woke with a gasp and a flurry of bubbles as he jerked awake. The soft glow of the emergency lighting above illuminated the huge, empty tank he was in. He sucked in a breath of cold water and it rushed out his gills, clear and clean and jarring after the suffocation he had felt in his dream. </p><p><em> It wasn’t real, it wasn’t real… </em>he tried to tell himself as he curled his tail around him in a tight ball and took shuddery breaths. He glanced at the glass window, almost afraid that he would find faces there, but there was no one. No one beyond the glass, no one above him, no one in the tank with him. He was completely and utterly alone.</p><p>A sob left him and he hugged himself tightly. He was alone, all alone. It had been a comfort after the torment he had endured at the hands of humans, but now… now he would give anything for a comforting touch, or for someone to hold him and drive away the memories. He knew they were only memories and dreams, but he could still feel them. His throat still ached with phantom pains of burning electricity. His breathing quickened and he forced the memories down. No, they removed the collar. It couldn’t hurt him. </p><p><em> “You’re okay, you’re safe now,” </em> Percy’s words rang in his ears, and the phantom sensations of burning around his throat morphed into soothing hands sliding down his back. <em> “They’ll never hurt you again. We’ll protect you. I’ve got you, you’re gonna be okay…”  </em></p><p>Nico tightened his grip on himself, claws digging into his shoulders and back. He didn’t know what had driven him to hug Percy like that, on that day when they took the shock collar off of him. He had never <em> wanted </em>a human to touch him before that. Fear was a mysterious force. Now, like in that moment, he craved that reassuring touch of another living being. But now, all he had to comfort himself was the memory of Percy murmuring reassurances to him, pretending that he was here again. </p><p>After what felt like eons, Nico managed to uncurl his arms from around himself, his muscles aching from the effort of holding himself together. He sank down to the bottom of the tank and curled himself loosely around the base of one of the tall kelp plants. The shiny abalone shells he had tied to the fronds swayed and clinked in the shifting currents. He touched the slimy stalk of the kelp plant ー the only other living thing in his tank, and it didn’t offer much in the way of companionship. Aside from the times Percy and the other keepers visited him, Nico was completely alone. For the first time, he was realizing he might not like that as much as he thought he did. He missed his sister, he missed his mother, even the few memories he had of his father. He even missed the hundreds of smaller, nameless fish he had seen only in passing during his childhood in the ocean, different creatures he had hardly spared a thought to but now missed as a sign that the water was teeming with life. The water of the tank he was in moved with a current, yes, but it was empty of life. Its caress was a cold, empty one that wasn’t enough to fill the aching need inside him.</p><p>Nico bit his lip and looked around the barren tank, trying to imagine schools of fish flitting about and little crabs scuttling along the sandy floor. With more companions to watch, to interact with, to converse with… maybe the faces on the other side of the glass wouldn’t be so noticeable or frightening, after all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>(this chapter is a little bit shorter than the previous one, sorry. But there’s a happy ending!) </p><p>I also drew some art of Nico whilst I was trying to visualize what he would look like in this AU (minus a few details - like a few more fins, and more markings along the chest - that I came up with in the writing after I had already drawn, and I couldn’t add because my tablet decided to stop working). I tried to draw Percy, too, but it didn’t turn out well. The Nico drawing is here on my tumblr: https://bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies25.tumblr.com/post/626704682756210688/mershark-nico-from-my-fic-deep-love-written</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A few days passed since their talk. </p><p>Percy was in the middle of cleaning the inside of the rehab tank when something barreled straight into his back. It was just a bump, not nearly enough to knock the wind out of him, but it did surprise him a bit; he hadn’t heard Nico approach at all. But there was no mistaking the two arms that wrapped around his middle ー one, because they were slender and sand-colored with shadow-gray markings and tipped with sharp claws, and two, because there was only one creature in the tank they could belong to.</p><p>“Hey, Nico!” Percy greeted brightly. He slowly maneuvered himself around in the water with his flippers so he could face him. “How’s my favorite merman doing?” </p><p>Nico smiled and released him to sign. <em> I’m your only merman, </em> he pointed out.</p><p>“Doesn’t mean I can’t still have a favorite,” Percy flicked some water at him, which had absolutely no effect other than a brief blink of his nictitating membrane sliding over his eyes, like an eerie, clear eyelid. Percy chuckled. “Anyway, how are you feeling today?”</p><p><em> Good, </em> Nico signed. <em> But hungry. </em>He paused and looked at Percy expectantly.</p><p>Percy arched an eyebrow. “Me too, but lunch isn’t for another hour. Gotta keep to the schedule.”</p><p>Nico gave him a flat, unimpressed look as he signed, <em> your insistence on human constraints of the concept of time are infuriating. </em></p><p>Percy laughed. “Who taught you those words?”</p><p>Nico smiled and held out two fingers ー the letter H ー and combined it with the sign for “hair”. Ever since Percy had mentioned Nico didn’t need to bother spelling out people’s names every time, he enjoyed seeing what nicknames Nico came up with for everyone (Percy’s, for example, was a combination of “P” and “ocean/sea”... although he couldn’t decide if he liked the association with the sea or disliked his name being <em> P-sea </em>.)</p><p>“Hazel?” Percy guessed, then chuckled when Nico nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me.” Hazel had a bit of an ‘old soul’ feel about her and was the only person Percy knew besides Annabeth who actually enjoyed crossword puzzles ー lending to an interesting vocabulary. He could see her teaching Nico some advanced words during their many talks.</p><p>Nico’s gaze drifted to the squeegee in Percy’s hand. <em> What are you doing?  </em></p><p>“Just cleaning,” Percy explained, and held out the squeegee for him to examine. “Gotta keep your tank nice and clean, and stop any algae from growing on the walls.” </p><p><em> The green stuff? </em> Nico made a face. <em> It tastes terrible.  </em></p><p>Percy frowned at that. “Have you had a problem with it?”</p><p>Nico shook his head. <em> Not here. </em> He paused, his smile slipping. <em> Before. </em> </p><p>Percy thought back to the photos he had seen of the roadside circus, and the small, dirty tank Nico had been kept in. The walls had been so covered in filth and algae that one could scarcely see through them. </p><p>He fixed a reassuring smile on his face, despite the regret in his heart. “Well, we’ll keep your tank clean so you never have to deal with that again.” </p><p>Nico nodded, looking grateful. <em> Can I help?  </em></p><p>Percy’s smile brightened. “Sure. Would save me some time with the scuba gear.” He swam back over to his things on the platform and fetched another brush. “Here, you can take this and get the deep areasー wait, what’s so funny?”</p><p>Nico bit his lip ー carefully, due to his sharp teeth. <em> You swim so slow and loud, </em> he signed, his eyes sparkling with mirth. </p><p>Percy’s mouth dropped open in feigned offense. “Hey, I was captain of the swim team! I set records at my school!”</p><p>Nico blinked, tilting his head in just-as-feigned innocence. <em> You did?  </em></p><p>“Not everyone has literal fins, Nico!” Percy handed him the brush. “If you’re so fast, prove it! Let’s see who finishes first!”</p><p>Nico’s eyes brightened at the challenge. He snatched up the brush and turned tail ー literally ー to dive down to the deep and start scrubbing.</p><p>Despite having more ground (or rather, water) to cover, Nico did, in fact, finish cleaning before Percy. The former captain of the swim team didn’t stand a chance against the merman in his natural element. After Nico finished, he amused himself by poking Percy in the back with the brush. </p><p>“Alright, alright, you win,” Percy laughed. He held out his hand for the brush, and when Nico gave it to him, Percy set the cleaning tools on the side of the pool and pulled himself up onto the submerged ledge to take off his flippers. </p><p>Nico swam over to him and rested his elbows on Percy’s knees under the water, looking up at him while he signed, <em> I thought about what we talked about before.  </em></p><p>Percy went still, listening (and watching) carefully. </p><p>Nico dipped down to take a big breath under the water, surfacing again as water streamed out of his gills. He looked determined, even as his fingers made slow, careful movements. <em> I want to stay. I think I can handle the exhibit tank. I think it will feel different than the circus. I trust you. </em> </p><p>Percy felt his face soften into a smile. “Thank you, Nico. It means a lot that you trust me. I promise you’ll be safe, and if it’s too much, we’ll find something else.” He stroked a hand through his hair, and his heart beat a little faster when Nico leaned into the touch like a cat enjoying being pet. “I’ll talk to the others, and Mr. D. Maybe we can arrange a test run, and see how you feel about it?” He would have to do some thinking about that, but he was sure they could work something out. The fact that Nico was even willing to try made him happy. </p><p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>The next couple of weeks were a whirlwind of activity. Proposals needed to be drawn up, Mr. D grilled him about plans and backup plans and backups for backups, tanks needed to be assessed for cohabitation issues… Eventually, at long last, they were ready to transport Nico from the rehabilitation tank to their most spacious tank in the aquarium, currently housing mostly tropical fish and a few species of manta rays along with a handful of nurse sharks. The tank was partially cut by a glass tunnel, but there was space to swim around and over the tunnel and there were a number of rock outcroppings and small caves, as well as lots of seaweed beds to hide in. It was easily three times the size of the rehabilitation tank, itself probably five times larger than Nico’s pitiful circus tank. Percy showed him pictures of the set-up, and didn’t miss the way Nico’s expression lit up at seeing the schools of fish and rock outcroppings full of coral and anemones. </p><p>Despite his obvious discomfort during the transport, Nico was compliant and didn’t fight them while they loaded him onto a stretcher and moved him to the other tank. He took to the new tank very well, and after an initial period of hesitancy he was soon swimming around exploring. The other fish didn’t seem to mind him, nor he them. Nico and the nurse sharks circled each other upon meeting, but their behavior was curious, not aggressive. As time went on, the keepers noticed the two species even bumping playfully and Nico sometimes even petting the smaller sharks with a soft smile. </p><p>Percy was mostly nervous about their viewing trial run. Of course, they didn’t want to announce to the world that they had a merman, open to a day of rabid visitors, and then be forced to close to the public in the case that Nico was overwhelmed after all. The public would be enraged, and they might be forced by higher ups to reopen against their better judgement. The solution they came up with was to gather a crowd of zoo employees dressed in their ordinary clothes (as Nico was more than used to the sight of the keepers in their bright orange polos) and have them act like visitors ー shuffling through the glass tunnel, peering around, snapping pictures, pointing, and talking. All volunteers were briefed ahead of time and signed agreements from Mr. D that if the experiment resulted in Nico deciding he couldn’t handle it, they were not to let the public or media know that there was a merman at the Olympus Zoo &amp; Aquarium. </p><p>When the day came, Percy noticed that Nico was nervous. He took his breakfast without complaint, but his hands shook when he returned the scallop shells and one of them slipped out of his grasp, striking the faux-rock ledge beside the tank before falling into the water with a <em> plop. </em> </p><p><em> Sorry, </em> Nico signed. </p><p>“It’s okay, I’ll grab it later with the net,” Percy assured him. “How are you feeling?”</p><p>Nico dipped down so that only his eyes and the top of his head were above the water level. He lifted one hand enough to sign two letters above the water: O-K. He didn’t really seem <em> okay </em>, Percy thought.</p><p>“We don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to,” Percy reminded him. True, it would be the simplest solution. But if it made Nico uncomfortable, Percy would fight tooth and nail to find something better. </p><p><em> No. I can do it, </em> Nico signed, and the water beside his head seemed to boil as he took a deep breath and exhaled the water through his gills. He looked up. <em> Will you be there?  </em></p><p>Percy offered him a small smile. “I’ll be keeping an eye on things. You might not see me, though. But the second you give the signal, I’ll call it off and make everyone leave, and I’ll come check on you. You remember the signs?”</p><p>Nico nodded, then brought his hands up to form a T, then an X with his arms ー <em> need a break </em> and <em> stop immediately </em>. </p><p>“That’s right.” Percy nodded. He reached down toward the water. “You can do this, Nico. Remember what we talked about. You’re not at the circus, and no one will hurt you. I promise.” </p><p>Nico met his hand, and Percy gave him a reassuring squeeze. Then they went their separate ways, and Percy slipped on a Hawaiian-print shirt, baseball cap, and sunglasses, and went to start the observation.</p><p>~~~Nico~~~</p><p>After Percy left, Nico tried to keep himself occupied by swimming around the tank like he normally would, but inside, he felt like he was buzzing with nerves. The fish avoided him, as they were able to sense his tension.</p><p>Nico glanced at the window, wondering when he would start to see people there, and nearly bumped into one of the nurse sharks. There were several nurse sharks in the tank, but one little mini-school of three females were particularly close and called themselves “the Furies”, although he didn’t know why and they never bothered to explain. They tended to talk to him the most, in that shark language of echolocation signals that humans weren’t able to perceive, and which Nico hadn’t been able to use to communicate since his sister was killed. He was getting more used to it, though, mostly with the help of the Furies and other sharks in the tank. </p><p><em> Watch it, guppy, </em> Alecto glared at him with a cold yellowish eye. For some reason, the nurse sharks always called him a guppy even though he dwarfed them in physical size. <em> What’s your problem? You’re radiating alarm like there’s a great white lurking around. </em></p><p><em> Sorry, </em> Nico apologized. <em> Just nervous. There’s going to be people at the window soon. </em></p><p><em> So? </em>Alecto didn’t seem concerned by this, and swam off to bother some hermit crabs. Nico almost wished he could have that sort of carefree attitude. All the nurse sharks had been born here and were completely used to seeing people through the glass.</p><p>Movement caught his attention and his heart jumped a little at the sight: a human walking slowly through the glass tunnel, pausing to look at the fish every few feet. His view was distorted a little by the glass, but he could see she was wearing a denim dress and had dark, curly hair that looked vaguely familiar. Nico drifted a little closer and studied the back of her head curiously. He jumped a little when the human turned around ー wait, was that Hazel? She gave him a little smile and lifted some kind of flattish rectangle (Percy had called it a “phone” when he showed him one, but the light hurt Nico’s eyes so he didn’t know why humans carried them). She pointed it toward him, then toward some angelfish, then she left. </p><p>Okay, okay, Nico thought. That wasn’t too bad. He knew Hazel. Granted, the point of this was to see how he did around strangers, butー </p><p>His thoughts were interrupted as another human entered the glass tunnel. Nico took one look at the human ー short dark hair, unfamiliar face, blue and green sweatshirt ー and realized he didn’t know this one. Alarmed, Nico quickly turned tail and darted behind some rocks. His only consolation was that when he poked his head around the rocks to get another look, the human looked to be just as startled as he himself felt. The human had backed up against the far side of the tunnel and was staring at him, his eyes wide. He turned and said something to someone ー <em> I think I scared him, sorry </em>, if Nico’s lip-reading was correct ー and Nico caught sight of Hazel half-stepping back into the tunnel, but he couldn’t make out what she said to him. The unfamiliar human nodded, though, and turned around to study the fish on the other side of the tunnel like his life depended on it. The back of his sweatshirt said ZHANG and CANUCKS, whatever that meant. Maybe that was Hazel’s friend she talked about sometimes, the one who worked in the part of the zoo that cared for bears and large cats. </p><p>Whoever he was, Zhang Canucks stared resolutely at the fish for a while, and by the time he slowly turned around, Nico had come out of hiding. The human glanced at him a few times while pretending to look at some sea urchins, then hurried away down the tunnel. Nico decided he wasn’t much of a threat after all.</p><p>More people came filtering through the underwater viewing area and the underwater tunnel. At first, they walked through alone or in pairs, but the groups grew larger as time went on. Some strolled through with hardly a glance at him, others stopped and looked for quite a while. Some took pictures, others didn’t. A few pointed and said things to the people they were with, but there was no malice to the gesture. Nico thought he recognized a handful of them ー Jason in a purple hoodie and some strange gold-rimmed sheets of glass perched on his nose, Annabeth with a peculiar brim-fronted cap emblazoned with what looked like an N and a Y on the front, Leo wearing something similar to the glass lenses Jason had, but this time bigger and tinted with shifting colors that he couldn’t see through... Nico even thought he spotted Percy once or twice, wearing some ridiculously patterned shirt and those reflective glass things hiding his eyes, a clipboard in his hands as he lurked in the shadows at the back of the room. It would have been unnerving, if he hadn’t had the sneaking suspicion that it <em> was </em>Percy.</p><p>After a little while, Nico started swimming around the tank more freely, and was even able to go about his business while not thinking about the people on the other side of the glass. He was busy tending to his coral and anemone garden when Alecto and her school of Furies swam past him on their rounds around the tank. </p><p>Alecto bumped against his side. <em> You seem better, </em>she said, blinking at him.</p><p><em> A little, </em> Nico smiled and pet her side. </p><p><em> Good, </em> Megaera huffed. <em> We rather like the attention from the split-tails, you know. They haven’t come around since you showed up. </em> </p><p>They didn’t stay long, but Nico didn’t mind (Tisiphone was eyeing up his garden like she wanted to snack on the clownfish that lived in the anemone). They puttered away and swam along the top of the glass tunnel while the humans looked up at their bellies. </p><p>Nico was just finishing up with his garden when he heard the heavy clunk of the keeper’s door being unlocked. He looked toward the glass and noticed that the humans had dispersed; the trial run must have ended while he wasn’t paying attention. Nico smiled, feeling a sense of victory, and swam up to the platform to talk with Percy.     </p><p>~~~Percy~~~</p><p>The viewing test left Percy feeling like he was on a rollercoaster. Seeing Nico struggle and be afraid hurt every fiber of his being and left him clutching his clipboard and barely restraining himself from calling the whole thing off and going to comfort him. Annabeth stuck by his side when she wasn’t playing her part as a visitor, reminding him that Nico was tough and resourceful and that he <em> asked </em>for this, and he would let Percy know if he wanted to stop. Percy’s restraint paid off, and his worry turned to pride as he watched Nico grow accustomed to visitors passing by the glass.</p><p>“Look at you, you’re practically glowing,” Annabeth teased him. “You’re like a proud parent bird watching their baby learn how to fly.”</p><p>Percy chuckled. “Don’t be silly, I’m definitely not Nico’s parent.” True, he was <em> close </em>with the merman, but not in that way… the feelings he had for Nico were hardly familial. More likeー well, no, he shouldn’t let himself start to think like that. He doubted the merman would view him the same way.</p><p>Annabeth hummed thoughtfully, a knowing smile on her lips. Percy studious ignored her in favor of checking some mundane detail on his clipboard. He couldn’t wait until this experiment was over and he could go talk to Nicoー to, uh, get his feedback on the test, of course.</p><p>~~~Nico~~~</p><p>With the success of the test run, they started preparations to open for the public (of course, strictly regulating the number of people that could come through at once, and prohibiting flash photography). It took some time for Nico to get used to being on display, and he sometimes had days where he retreated to a secluded part of the tank to be alone for a while. His favorite part of the day was getting to talk to Percy or one of the other keepers around feeding time. He enjoyed all of their company, but nothing got him to the surface quicker than hearing Percy’s particular cadence of footsteps on the fake rock platform. </p><p>Overall, he was very happy in the big tank. Sometimes he did have moments of fear and apprehension regarding the humans on the other side of the glass. Sometimes they did remind him a little too much of the prying gazes at the circus. But he found ways to ground himself ー focusing on the flow of the artificial current on his skin, or the gentle back-and-forth wave of the sea plants, or the mindless little patterns that the schools of fish swam. They helped remind him of where he was, and more importantly, where he <em> wasn’t </em>. </p><p>He knew the humans regarded him with a sense of curiosity. To be honest, he regarded them much the same. He already knew that humans came in different colors and shapes, just like different fish. When the visitors started coming, he learned that humans came in different sizes as well; the small ones were usually loud and excitable, and often ran about or moved erratically. It startled him a little, but he realized that many small species of fish acted that way too, compared to the larger, slower-moving fish. He wondered if the smaller humans stayed that way, like fish, or if they really did evolve as they got bigger, like Percy claimed. </p><p>Beyond their appearances, Nico found himself fascinated by human behavior as well. Their bipedal walking movements were, to him, just as interesting to observe as his swimming seemed to be to them. The visitors seemed to walk slower and more leisurely than the keepers, he noticed. They also sometimes walked with their hands joined together, whether it was an adult human keeping hold of a small one or two adults strolling along together. The latter of those was sometimes accompanied by an odd action that Nico found very puzzling, where the humans seemed to bump their faces together for a moment. The glass tunnel seemed to be a popular spot for this peculiar activity, he noticed. He wondered what it was, and why they did it. There didn’t seem to be any practical reason for it. He didn’t notice them do it often, but the handful of times was enough to pique his interest.</p><p>The room beyond the glass was empty and quiet now, though, with no people around. Nico didn’t care much for the human concept of time, but he thought it must be around closing time for the zoo. He heard the keeper’s door open above the surface and then the quiet sound of musical humming. That was Piper, he thought. She might be a good person to ask. </p><p>Nico flicked his fin to carry him upward and broke the surface. It was indeed Piper, crouched on the fake rock ledge beside the water with an assortment of plastic beakers and equipment, taking samples of the water to check the condition of the tank. She smiled and gave him a little wave when she noticed him. “Hi, Nico. What’s up?” She signed in time with her words.</p><p><em> I have a question, </em> he signed back.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll see if I can answer it.” Piper set down her equipment and took a seat on the rocks, sitting cross-legged. </p><p>Nico’s hands hesitated for a moment, trying to find the words before he started signing. <em> What does it mean when humans touch their faces together? </em>He asked.</p><p>Piper blinked, looking taken aback by the question. “Touch their faces together?”</p><p>Nico tapped his lips to demonstrate. <em> I see humans do it sometimes on the other side of the glass.  </em></p><p>“Oh, you mean kissing?” Piper asked. </p><p>Nico shrugged. He didn’t know that word, or the sign she had done. </p><p>Suddenly a splash and a shout from the direction of the door made them look up. “Ah! Who left the door open?!” A moment later, a rogue Humbolt penguin came hopping in, dead-set on diving straight into the tropical fish tank for an exotic snack, had Piper not swiftly scooped it up. Jason ran in a few seconds later looking harried. </p><p>“Tempest, you sneaky little bird!” Jason scolded the penguin. “Thanks for catching him, Pipes. That would have been a disaster. I’ll take him back to his pool.” </p><p>“You can have him back if you give me a kiss,” Piper told him with a sly smile. </p><p>Jason looked slightly baffled at the request that seemed to come out of nowhere. Nico tilted his head as he watched them, interested in what this “kiss” thing was. Still looking confused, Jason shrugged and leaned in to press his lips to Piper’s quickly, with a little soft sound like a pop or a smack that Nico didn’t usually get to hear through the glass. Then she handed him the squirming, braying penguin off to him, and he carried it away while saying “oh stop that, I know you wanted to go on a tropical fish joyride, but that is not on your diet, mister…” </p><p>Piper giggled and shut the keeper’s door behind him, then turned back to Nico. “Was that what you were asking about?”</p><p>Nico nodded. </p><p>“That’s a kiss. Kiss,” she repeated the sign so he could see it clearly. “It’s something humans do to show affection, mostly to their partner ー the person they love.” </p><p><em> Love? </em> Nico asked, copying the unfamiliar sign.</p><p>“Yeah, love. I’m sure you know the feeling, even if you don’t know the word.” Piper smiled a little dreamily as her gaze slid over to the door where Jason had left. “When you care about a person so much that even just being with them or thinking about them makes you feel happy, like there’s a little ball of warmth and light in your chest. That’s love.” She looked at Nico. “Is there someone you love?” </p><p>Nico couldn’t blush, but he felt his bioluminescent points start to glow as his heart beat a little faster. He sank down up to his nose in the water and looked away. His hands moved under the water, signing <em> maybe </em>, but he hoped Piper couldn’t see it under the water.</p><p>Her smile turned knowing. “Well, if you love someone, you should tell him. You never know what might happen.” </p><p>With that, she gathered up her equipment and samples, then gave him a little wave goodbye before leaving. Nico dove back down to his favorite little underwater cave, turning over her words in his mind. It was only then that he realized she had said “<em> you should tell </em> <b> <em>him</em> </b>”... Did she know? Even before Nico had known, or been able to put a word to it?</p><p>...Did Percy know?</p><p>~~~Nico~~~</p><p>A few days later, the zoo was closed for some human holiday that Nico had only half paid attention to the explanation was. Merfolk didn’t really have holidays, nor did even really use dates; the changing of the seasons was something they simply felt instinctively and through water temperatures. But Nico was relieved to hear that even though the zoo was closed, many of the keepers would still be there to tend to the animals. He was extra relieved to hear that Percy was one of those who had volunteered to come in to work over this holiday. He was <em> less </em>relieved to wake up to the bickering between the Furies escalating into someone biting a small chunk out of Alecto’s tail fin to the point that she needed medical attention in order to keep a frenzy from happening, which really threw a tangled seaweed-ball into Nico’s plans to spend the supposed-to-be-quiet day with Percy.</p><p>Nico, submerged up to just below his eyes, watched Percy where he was sitting on the underwater ledge with the nurse shark in his lap and a tube of some sutreing gel in one hand. He kept his distance, not wanting to interfere with Percy’s work. Of course he had to tend to the other sharks in the tank. Nico wasn’t jealous, not at all. He definitely wasn’t lying in wait, or keeping an eye on Alecto to make sure she didn’t make any moves on the human. </p><p>“There you go, beautiful, all fixed up,” Percy said cheerfully, despite knowing the nurse shark wouldn’t understand him. Nico flicked his tail; he definitely wasn’t jealous. But he would argue that Alecto wasn’t exactly ‘beautiful’, even for a shark. Percy stroked a hand down the shark’s side. “Now, try not to get chomped by any of your buddies next time, okay?” </p><p>Alecto wiggled a little, pleased to be pet even though she didn’t understand the silly human words. Nico narrowed his eyes and sent out a sonar-like signal that Percy had no hope of even registering: <em> mine.  </em></p><p><em> You can have him, </em> Alecto signaled back, not really caring either way. <em> Don’t bare your teeth at me, overgrown punk. </em> </p><p>Percy, oblivious with his mere five senses that did not include echolocation, hummed cheerily as he put the cap back on the medicine and let go of the shark’s tail, allowing her to swim off the shelf and back to her school. By the time Percy looked up, Nico was already in front of him.</p><p>Percy smiled brightly. “Hi, Nico! How are you?”</p><p><em> Good </em> , Nico signed (he was, now that Alecto was gone). <em> Can you swim today? </em> He asked, because Percy was in his wetsuit and had his flippers and snorkel gear nearby. Nico still found it strange that he needed special things to <em> swim </em>. Despite insistences that he was fast and agile for a human, Nico found him slow and clumsy in the water (but in an adorable way, like watching a guppy get used to their fins for the first time).</p><p>“Well, this was only supposed to be for catching the shark that needed medical attention,” Percy said, glancing around like he was checking to make sure no one else was there. He turned to Nico with a grin. “But I think I can sneak a few minutes for a quick dip.”</p><p>Nico smiled and backed up to give Percy space to slide into the water. Percy let out a shiver as he went in up to his neck, muttering something about it being cold. Nico laughed a little, finding that funny. </p><p>Percy was treading water and telling Nico about his day, but Nico was only half listening. The other half was thinking back to what Piper had told him. Humans showed love by doing that kissing thing, so maybe that’s how he should tell him? Or did humans say it in words? They certainly liked to use their words. But Nico wasn’t sure which words to use, in that case, and he only had that one example with Piper and Jason to work off of… maybe he should justー</p><p>“ーNico?” He tuned back in just in time to notice Percy watching him with concern. “Are you okay? You seem like you’reー”</p><p>Nico didn’t stop to think about it; if he did, he might lose his nerve. With a powerful flick of his tail, he lunged forward and grabbed Percy’s shoulders as he pushed their faces together. He ended up slamming into him with a bit more force than necessary, propelling them both a few feet through the water. Percy let out a muffled yelp of surprise and stopped treading water for a moment, which made him sink a few inches before he caught himself. </p><p>Nico pulled back, breaking the “kiss” just as quickly as he had started it. His heart was pounding in his chest and he realized he didn’t quite know what to do after this point. With the people he watched through the glass, and Jason and Piper, there was usually a moment where they looked into each other’s eyes with a soft smile before going about their business. But Percy… Percy was staring at him, open-mouthed and shocked in a way that felt ominously familiar. Nico’s heart sank like a stone in the water when he realized what it was ー it was the same look Percy had when he had first laid eyes on the frightened, snarling merman in the small transport tank in the back of the truck.</p><p>Regret washed through him like he had plunged through the cold, dense layer of water that usually lurked in deep pits. Nico managed to sign out a shaky <em> sorry </em> before he turned to dive down into the water and escape to his cave. </p><p>“Waitー!” </p><p>Nico felt a tug on his dorsal fin, like a weight suddenly latching onto him. It wasn’t quite enough to stop him, just slow his movement through the water. Half a moment later, he heard and felt a hacking, choking sort of cough sound accompanied by a burst of bubbles, the sudden sound vibrations causing several nearby fish to flee in surprise. Nico looked over his shoulder and found Percy hanging onto his dorsal fin, eyes squeezed shut and bubbles escaping him as he choked on water. He let go of Nico, but was too disoriented to know which way was up and nearly kicked a colony of coral housing several spiny urchins. </p><p>Panic quickly drowned out any embarrassment and Nico spun around, grabbing Percy under the arms and hauling him to the surface with a snap of his tail. They broke the surface coughing ー Percy from the water he had inhaled, and Nico from overshooting and suddenly exposing his gills to the air. He managed to get Percy to the edge of the tank where a rock ledge was, then hovered uncertainly while Percy spent a couple of minutes clinging to the rocks and coughing up saltwater. Now that Percy wasn’t actively drowning, regret and shame swelled in Nico’s chest once more. This was all his fault. He had tried to show Percy how much he cared for him, but instead he had nearly killed him. </p><p>He should leave, he thought. Maybe he could slip away, now? Percy could get himself out of the tank from here, and then they could just pretend this didn’t happen…</p><p>As if he could hear his thoughts, Percy turned and pointed at him. “You stay right there. Don’t you dare run away.” His voice sounded hoarse and he turned away to cough again.</p><p>Nico sank down in the water up to his nose, but dutifully stayed put. He figured if he tried to run, Percy could just follow him to any of the underwater windows and continue this conversation in sign language.</p><p>Percy took a few deep, ragged breaths to steady himself. “Dear gods, I gotta sit down…” He looked around and found the submerged shelf he had been sitting on before, then swam over to it. Nico hovered behind him awkwardly, wanting to keep his distance but ready to grab him if he went under. Percy swam without a problem, though, and pulled himself up onto the ledge. He grabbed a water bottle from his bag on the rocks and took a few swigs to rid his mouth of salt water. </p><p>Finally, he turned to Nico with a puzzled frown. “So… what was that about, exactly?” </p><p>Nico fidgeted with his hands before answering. <em> Piper said it was called a kiss. </em> </p><p>Percy’s lips silently mouthed the word ‘<em> kiss </em>’ and he looked stunned. “So, you thought it would be a good idea to suddenly kiss me out of the blue and then run away?” </p><p>Nico flinched. <em> Seemed like the kiss wasn’t a good idea. So… </em> he trailed off, feeling lost for words. <em> Ran away… </em> He paused, then signed <em> sorry </em> again.</p><p>Percy pushed a hand through his drenched black hair as he thought about that. “I don’t <em> mind </em>, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said slowly. “I just would have liked a little heads up; you came at me kinda fast and I wasn’t expecting it.”</p><p><em> Sorry </em>, Nico signed yet again. He should have known humans would prefer words. </p><p>Percy looked at him carefully. “I guess I’m also confused about <em> why </em>you wanted to kiss me?” </p><p>Nico was sorely tempted to flee to the deep, now. <em> I asked Piper why humans touch faces sometimes, and she said it was called kissing and something you do with a person you love. So, I thought… </em>he trailed off once more before signing an apology again.</p><p>Percy’s eyes widened. “You… you love me?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. </p><p>Nico wanted to say “I did”. But in sign language, that would mean signing “I do” followed by “finish”. And Nico wasn’t sure if he could honestly say he was finished loving Percy. He wished there was a way to deflect without being untruthful. </p><p><em> I’m sorry </em>, he signed instead. </p><p>“No, don’t apologize,” Percy said. “Just, please, tell me honestly. Do you love me? Yes or no?”</p><p>Nico hesitated as he weighed his options. If he lied and said no, it wouldn’t get Percy off his back; he would just keep asking why he had done it, then. But if he said yes… it might damage their relationship forever. </p><p>Piper’s words rang in his ears: <em> “If you love someone, you should tell him. You never know what might happen...” </em></p><p>Nico really, really hoped Piper was right. </p><p>His hand was already curled in a fist from signing <em> sorry </em> so many times. He brought it up and nodded it ー <em> yes. </em> </p><p>Percy’s eyes widened and he sucked in a sharp breath. Every fiber of Nico’s body was screaming at him to run, flee, hide… Until a broad smile broke out over Percy’s face and he lit up like the lure of an anglerfish, and Nico couldn’t look away. </p><p>“You really love me back?” Percy asked, leaning forward.</p><p>Nico froze, his attention snagged on that last word. <em> Back? </em> </p><p>“Yeah, I, uh…” Percy rubbed the back of his head, looking nervous. “I may have had a bit of a crush on you for a whileー not that kind of crush,” he added quickly in response to Nico’s look of horror as he signed the word <em> smash </em> in disbelief. Percy waved his hands and chuckled a little hysterically, shaking his head. “Sorry, ‘crush’ is a slang word for, like, being kind of in love with someone but not telling them. I was afraid you didn’t feel the same way.” </p><p><em> I crushed you too, </em> Nico signed. </p><p>“Um, that sign is for actually crushing things,” Percy told him with a smile. “This one is for liking someone, crush.” He made a different sign, closer to spelling out the word. “Or I could just be honest and say, I love you,” he said and signed it. </p><p>Nico smiled. <em> I love you too. </em> He paused, unsure if he was allowed to ask, then did the sign Piper had taught him. <em> Kiss? </em> </p><p>Percy chuckled and slid off the shelf and into the water. “Of course. But maybe follow my lead this time? You came at me pretty fast and hard before. Almost gave me a bloody nose, and that’d be a disaster in the water.” </p><p>Nico shrank a little bit, feeling embarrassed. Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to start a frenzy in the tank. Those nosy nurse sharks should keep their teeth away from his Percy. </p><p>Percy braced one hand on the rock ledge and beckoned him closer with the other, his smile bright. “C’mere. And <em> please </em>be careful of your teeth.” </p><p>Nico swam closer and let Percy draw him into a kiss. It was much softer and slower than his earlier attempt. The teeth comment didn’t make sense, at first, but then Nico realized there was more to kissing than <em> just </em>touching lips. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but Percy was a good teacher. And if he needed to keep doing this as practice? Well, that wasn’t such a terrible thing, he thought with a smile as his bioluminescent points glowed happily.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Pro tip: do not accidentally almost drown your potential boyfriend during the confession process. 😅</p><p>Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it! Again, I will be posting one more work for this event here, and the other two on my other account (WildWolf25).</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>(this will be in two chapters, since I got a little carried away and it turned out MUCH longer than expected. I'll get the second one up soon!)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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